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BloggingheadsTV had Mark Leon Goldberg of UN Dispatch talking with Suzanne Nossel of the State Department yesterday about Iran’s bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.
Yes, you heard that right. This, apparently, is how the Human Rights Council works — the countries most qualified to speak about human rights are the ones who have first-hand experience violating human rights themselves.
Cynicism aside, this is an incredibly important issue, and the Obama Administration has to get it right. In the absence of direct diplomacy, and in the context of the sanctions push that is still ongoing, the US is doing very little to actually promote human rights in Iran.
The least — and I mean the very least — they can do is work to stop Iran from making a mockery of an important international institution for the promotion of basic universal rights.
April 15, 2010